Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian preacher, understands why some in Ukraine are suspicious of him.

He’s black in a country where racism is blatant, Pentecostal in a country considered the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy, and a foreigner whose lively, conversational preaching style — punctuated by pompom girls and electric keyboards — stands out from the subdued, centuries-old practices of Ukraine’s traditional faiths...

... The Embassy of The Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations church has ballooned from a ministry for society’s troubled into the ex-Soviet republic’s first true megachurch, claiming a membership of 25,000 people.

The church, informally called God’s Embassy, boasts a TV ministry and plans for a $15 million US church stadium, and aims to reach five million people — 10 per cent of Ukraine’s population — with its message of salvation.